Chairman Obama's, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke

Chairman Obama's,

Paralyzes Greece

Greece problems tied to budget, competitivity: Bernanke
24 February 2010,


(WASHINGTON) - US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday the economic woes facing Greece stem from fiscal and competitiveness issues, but that Europeans were focused on fixing the problems.

"The very serious problem here is not involving only fiscal issues, but also competitiveness issues because of the single exchange rate," Bernanke told a congressional panel when asked about Greece's deep financial troubles.

"But you know, we have talked to the European leaders, they're very focused on getting this problem solved."

Under acute pressure from its 15 eurozone partners, the Socialist Greek government has pledged to slash its deficit this year, agreeing to painful public spending cuts that have sparked a national strike.

Bernanke said that for the Fed, "we are keeping an eye on it, but the Europeans of course, it's most relevant to them and they're most exposed to those problems. And they're very focused on trying to get them under control."

On Wednesday, police fired tear gas and clashed with youths as tens of thousands protested in Athens, Thessaloniki and other main Greek cities against the austerity measures to tame a public debt crisis.

ATHENS — Flights at Greek airports were canceled, public transportation was halted, and schools closed Wednesday as public-sector employees and private-sector workers walked off their jobs in the second 24-hour strike in two weeks against austerity measures.

The government is under intense pressure to plug a budget deficit that equals 12.7 percent of gross domestic product and to avert the first national default among the 16 countries that use the euro.

The day was largely peaceful, though police officers fired tear gas to disperse around 50 young demonstrators who pelted them with stones and paint near the Parliament building in the city center. They were part of a crowd of more than 20,000 who marched holding banners reading “tax the rich” and “hands off our pension funds.”

At the same time, government officials and representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund were discussing the imposition of additional measures to reduce the national debt — now more than $400 billion — and increase revenue. But the strike included journalists, effectively creating a media blackout that kept Greeks in the dark about any progress.

Greece has already announced wage freezes, bonus cuts, tax crackdowns and pension reforms over the past month meant to save some $6.7 billion.

The new measures, which the government has not yet confirmed but are expected to be announced next week, include a 2 percent increase in the 19 percent value-added tax, higher fuel prices and the possible abolition of one of two additional months of pay received by public-sector workers and by employees at many private firms.

“What else are they going to cut, the air that we breathe?” said Kiki Oikonomou, a 47-year-old administrative employee at a state school for disabled children. “This is like a jail sentence. Where’s the hope?”

According to Paraskevi Androni, 26, an unemployed engineer whose short-term contract with the privatized state carrier Olympic Air expired recently, the abolition of the extra pay would bring misery to workers and businesses alike.

“People rely on this additional wage to pay for basic needs,” she said. “If it gets cut, people will stop spending and even more small businesses will close.” As for her own employment prospects, she said “I try to be optimistic but I’m worried about the future.”

Another engineer milling in the crowd before Wednesday’s march said he believed many more protests would follow. “If people see the minority living a good life and their wages plummeting, they’re going to take to the streets,” said Haralambos Dramantis, a 60-year-old employee with the state power board. “We haven’t seen the big uprising yet but it will come.”

He added that strikes by farmers, tax collectors, customs officials and others in recent weeks were “just the beginning.”

Addressing a sea of protesters from a lectern bedecked with a banner reading, “People and their needs above the markets,” the head of main labor union encouraged public resistance to the government’s austerity measures. “We refuse to pay the price for a crisis that we didn’t create,” the leader, Yannis Panagopoulos, said.

He added that Greece has become “a Ping-Pong ball in a game being played by global speculators,” a reference to the financial markets.

The strike came a day after the international credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Greece’s four largest banks on fears that Greece’s efforts to bring down its deficit through austerity measures would reduce demand for loans and curb bank profits.

“It is clear,” said Giorgos Lakopoulos of Ta Nea, a center-left daily, that European Union officials “do not believe the austerity measures heralded to date are adequate to reduce the deficit by four percentage points this year.”

“They want more,” he said.

Chairman Obama Social Security Conundrum

Silver Tsunami: The Social Security Conundrum
By Paul Menchaca

Last May, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue met with Financial Planning during a trip to New York to promote the $250 recovery payments that were being issued to people who receive Social Security and Supplemental Security Income.

Astrue emphasized the importance of reforming the government insurance program, but also sought to dispel the common notion that Social Security is in danger of going bankrupt.

Using the latest figures, Asture said that Social Security is expected to be solvent until 2041, but even when it reaches “insolvency” there will still be money to pay out benefits. These benefits, however, would only be roughly 78% of the current benefits.

Not great, but also not nearly as dire a scenario as many had been projecting.

But two significant factors appear to be accelerating the projection for when the program will reach insolvency since our interview with Astrue last spring.

One is a better understanding of the extent to which the recession took a toll on the retirement system. Secondly, growing concerns about the impact a massive wave of retiring baby boomers will soon have on Social Security.

Of course, experts have been concerned about boomers impact on our retirement system for decades, but the unease has only intensified since the first wave of boomers started collecting Social Security three years ago.

So where does the program stand today? Social Security’s surplus is now expected to last until 2037, four years fewer than Astrue estimated in May. In addition, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported in September that the program will be operating at a deficit in 2010 and 2011 — the Congressional Budget Office sees costs exceeding tax revenues by $10 billion this year and by $9 billion next year.

The onsalught of ominous data carries with it a flood of dire media reports. Astrue maintains that a crisis does not loom and others agree.

“Alarmists who claim that Social Security won’t be around when today’s young workers retire misunderstand or misrepresent the [Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees’] projections,” Kathy Ruffing, of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, told CNBC.

But despite these assurances, Americans should be concerned about the future of Social Security. The recession, which has led many to retire early and claim benefits, has certainly hurt. The millions of boomers heading toward retirement no doubt have to be taken seriously as a problem to be dealt with. But what is most alarming about the future health of Social Security is the current health of Congress.

To understand how far away we appear to be from seeing serious Social Security reform, we need only look back to the last time the program faced a major crisis. In 1981, President Reagan and Congress assigned a bipartisan commission with the task of saving Social Security from bankruptcy. The National Commission on Social Security Reform — or the Greenspan Commission, so named because Allen Greenspan served as its chair — issued a report in 1983 that became the basis for a $168 billion package signed into law by Reagan.

The amendments passed that year not only stemmed the short-term crisis of funding that loomed over Social Security, they also assured that 1983 would be the last year Congress cut benefits. The program has run on a surplus ever since.

What is astonishing to consider in this era of unprecedented political partisanship is the degree to which the amendments Reagan signed off on forged a compromise between the wishes of both Republicans and Democrats. Not only did the package include a cut in benefits, it also came with a tax increase.

Fast forward to today and the U.S. Senate voted last month against a proposal to form a bipartisan commission that would look into concerns over Social Security’s solvency—not to mention the fiscal problems facing Medicaid and Medicare. The same kind of bipartisan commission, mind you, that President Reagan and Congress formed to essentially save Social Security back in the 80s.

Meanwhile, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has unveiled his seemingly Newt Gingrich-inspired “Roadmap for America’s Future” which seeks, among other proposals, to privatize Social Security. This is a plan that failed President Bush in 2005 and will likely fail Ryan as well.

Critics of the privatization plan see it as being akin to playing poker with people’s savings. The market collapse in 2008 will only add fuel to the opposition’s fire.

Astrue is probably correct when he says that Social Security is in no imminent danger. Its long-term solvency, however, is going to require that Republicans and Democrats sit down at a table together and hammer out a solid plan for reforming the program. Which is why the endless political dogma driving Congress today could be the real threat to Social Security’s solvency.

Obama Charts 'Dangerous Course,' His Policies 'Not American'

Obama is the most liberal president in the nation’s history.
By: Newsmax Jim Meyers Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tells Newsmax that the Obama administration is charting a “dangerous course” as it pushes for a dramatic expansion of government that “imperils our future.”



Bush predicted that a “tsunami” of opposition to President Barack Obama's redistributive policies will sweep away Democratic candidates this November, and a popular “uprising” is under way that will shake the pillars of Washington.





In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Bush also said Obama is surrounded by “political hacks,” described Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts a “pivotal moment” in American history, and said Obama needs to be more aggressive in dealing with tyrants in Iran and Venezuela.


See Newsmax.TV's Video Interview with Jeb Bush below.

Bush was elected governor in 1998 and served two terms during a period of great economic growth in Florida.

A popular governor, he has been credited widely with spurring that growth by keeping taxes low and holding down spending. He won high praise for handling natural disasters, no less than six major hurricanes barreled into Florida’s coastlines during his tenure. He also spearheaded reforms that have led to tremendous improvements in the state’s education system.

Today, Bush is in private business and works with several charities and foundations. He told Newsmax he presently has no plans to run for president in 2012, although he has been touted as a candidate. He hinted that he might seek office at a later date if he and his family were financially secure.

Newsmax.TV’s Ashley Martella and Kathleen Walter pointed to high unemployment levels, a rising federal deficit and looming healthcare expansion, and asked Bush for his assessment of the situation in Washington.

“We’re on a dangerous course in Washington for sure,” he responded.

“The downturn was real and still a lot of people are suffering from the financial meltdown and the loss of jobs. It seems to me the Obama administration, instead of trying to solve that problem with common-sense American solutions, is trying to take advantage of it to redefine who we are as a nation.

“I’m very disturbed about this, and more importantly millions of Americans are. They are acting on their concerns in a way that gives me a lot of hope that we’re going to rebound economically, and also politically, to bring back the proper balance between the citizens of our country and the government that’s supposed to be serving them.”

Martella observed that Obama’s team seems intent on blaming his predecessor, Jeb’s brother George W., for virtually every problem the nation faces.

“From a political point of view, I don’t think that helps the president,” the former governor declared. “Pushing somebody down to make yourself look good was something my mother taught me didn’t work.

“At some point, the president needs to realize he’s no longer a candidate, he’s the leader of the greatest country on the face of the earth, and he has to begin to lead. I think a lot of people will follow him if he actually leads. But if everything’s political and everything’s about the past, then I think he’ll see declining poll numbers as we see today.”

Obama Policies: ‘Not American’

Newsmax.TV asked whether Obama is the most liberal president in the nation’s history.

Bush said he tries to avoid such labels but went on to say: “If he believes that government ought to consume 40 percent of the economy, of the economic output, I don’t know what you’d call that, but it’s not American.

“If he believes that redistributing wealth will create more prosperity for more people, that’s been tried and it’s failed. What he should believe is that the interaction of millions of people freely pursuing their dreams will create more prosperity for more people than any government program. That’s the American way.

He criticized Obama for not bringing into government business leaders and entrepreneurs to advise him.

“They’re all academics or they’re political hacks,” Bush said of Obama’s circle.

Brown’s capture of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts is “fantastic,” Bush said. “You think about, had he not won, what the course of history would look like.

“We’d probably have this massive 2,000-page bill or some version of it thrust upon the American people for healthcare. We would have an increasing move toward treating the war on terror as some kind of civilian criminal action. And we would have candidates running for office who probably could get elected maintaining the status quo.

“Now you see this tsunami of reaction to the election and to people’s fears and hopes, and candidates who feel they might be in the way of that tsunami are not running.

“It will go down in history as one of those pivotal moments in the course of our country,” and if conservatives “step up,” it will lead to “the beginning of the restoration of the foundational aspects of our country.”

Bush called the tea party movement “a very natural uprising that is wonderful. These are people acting upon their fears about the future of our country.”

Republicans could benefit from this, he said, but they need to “believe in limited government and act on those beliefs with a 21st-century agenda that is hopeful and optimistic, and is principled in opposition to this dramatic, dramatic expansion of government that imperils our future.”

Asked whether Sarah Palin, who supports the tea party movement, is a viable presidential candidate for 2012, Bush said: “Sarah Palin has a role to play in the future of the party irrespective of whether she’s a candidate. She appeals to a large group of people who are deeply concerned about the future of this country.”

Obama ‘Defaults’ to Bush Terror Policies

Walter noted that George Bush kept America safe from terrorist attacks for more than seven years, and asked: “By claiming to be the anti-Bush, are Obama and his policies making this nation less safe?”

“I think it would be good to build on the successes of the previous administration and deal with the issues where we have problems,” Bush answered.

“In fact what is happening is, because he overpromised politically, now he’s defaulting back to my brother’s positions on many of these national security issues because it’s the right thing to do.

“Maybe he should have started there, but I’m glad he ends up there because we’re still at war. He’s a wartime president whether he likes it or not, and he needs to act that way.”

Bush also said the Obama administration’s decision to offer Miranda rights to terror suspects and try them in civilian courts was a “huge mistake,” and that “to believe the president was not part of this decision makes no sense at all.”

Obama Weak on Iran and Chavez

Turning to Iran, Bush said: “I don’t think the military option should ever be taken off the table.

“I think the president could start by being less timid in his support of the democracy and freedom movement in Iran. A democratic Iran would not be a threat to its neighbors or to the United States.

“The president is the leader of the free world. But for the United States, who will defend people who aspire to freedom around the world? Iran is the place where this plays out in a way that’s really important for our own national security interests and the security interests of the region.”

Bush called Hugo Chavez’s regime in Venezuela “the model of incremental moves toward totalitarian regimes,” saying Chavez has taken away freedoms “incrementally to the point where Venezuela is on the edge of losing its status as a democracy.

“Being passive in this and thinking that we can be friends with our enemies just by extending the hand of friendship is naïve.”

“We can play a positive role to support the student movement and other elements of Venezuelan society that are fighting back against Chavez …

“Sheer ineptitude and incompetency and corruption will bring down the Chavez regime, but we can’t sit back passively and let this happen naturally. I think we need to be much more engaged in the region.”

Oval Office Meeting

Bush doubts that the GOP will retake the Senate in November, but thinks there is a better chance of the House changing hands.
He also said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “worldview is completely out of the mainstream of American thinking.”

Bush disclosed that he and his father recently visited with Obama in the Oval Office, and he said Obama was “incredibly kind to my dad, the greatest man I’ve ever met. To see the way the president dealt with my frail and beautiful father was something I’ll always remember.”

Bush said that, despite speculation he might run for president in 2012, he has no plans to seek the White House at this point.
“I’ve got to fulfill my obligations and duties and my desire to be a good husband and a good father,” he told Newsmax.

“That’s what I’m doing now. I can’t tell you when that mission will be complete.”

Politically, he added, “I am involved and I stay involved. But as a candidate right now I don’t see it.”

As for the Florida Senate race to be decided this year, Bush said he has not decided yet whether he will endorse either of the two Republican candidates in primary, Gov. Charlie Crist or former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Bush said Crist is a “talented guy” and “about the nicest guy I’ve ever met in politics.” But he added that the stimulus bill is “a massive spending bill that is not related to stimulus, it is related to trying to carry out a liberal agenda,” and said that, as a Republican, Crist’s support for the bill was “unforgivable.”

$1billion US "fortress embassy"

President: Chairman Obama are you out of your mind?
$1,005,074,815.97
$1 billion US "fortress embassy"


What did we sell the old embassy for??????

Were is this FORTRESS
Not in any terrorist country, but in London!!!!!

Design picked for US 'fortress embassy'

Philadelphia-based architect Kieran Timberlake has won the battle to design the new US embassy in London - the largest American building in western Europe.

The design beat off competition from four other practices, all-American, due to security concerns.

The partnership of Kieran-Timberlake (Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake was selected by a design jury that included the architect Richard Rogers and the proerty developer Peter Palumbo.

Other names in contention were IM Pei, Richard Meier and Thom Mayne of Morphosis. The US government wants to build the £650m complex, 12 stores high - on a five-acre site in Nine Elms in south London.

Selected design of new US embassy in London As described by the then US ambassador in 2008, Robert Tuttle: "We realised that the goal of a modern, secure and environmentally-sustainable embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility."

The Americans had talked in military terms of a "blast zone" 30 metres wide around the building and a perimeter fence 4.5 metres high.

But the plans do not include an obvious perimeter fence. Instead security will be maintained by clever landscaping, through a water feature, inclines and embankments.

Post -9/11, American embassy construction has offered a particular challenge. The state department has a specialist section dealing with it - the wonderful acronym, the OBO, Overseas Building Operations.

For the OBO, security has to be paramount. How do you build to deter terrorists? They all remember the bloody attacks on embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam in 1998, on the embassy in San'a in Yemen a decade later.

The American embassy in Baghdad, which opened in January 2009, stands in the Green Zone. The last important new embassy in Europe, in Berlin, was dogged by delays mostly because of security.

The Berlin design (naturally by American architects) was ready in 1996. Construction finally started eight years later in 2004.

Grosvenor Square Eagle (Credit: Getty) The old embassy in Grosvenor Square - designed by the Finnish-American, Eero Saarinen in 1955 - will continue to function until then.

The lease was sold to Diar Real Estate Investment of Qatar in November 2009.

Biography of Mr Ghanim bin Saad al-Saad CEO Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company

Qatari born Mr. Ghanim bin Saad al-Saad is a prominent leader in Qatar’s real-estate and business sectors. He obtained his Master’s degree from Kent University, UK and is currently involved with his Ph.D.

Furthermore, Mr. Al-Saad is currently the Chairman of a number of organizations, namely, Barwa Real Estate Company (which is 45% owned by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company), First Finance Company, First Real Estate Company, Al-Jazeera Academy, and Barwa Bank. Moreover, he is also the Director of Urban Velvet (Architecture & Development company) in London, UK. Most recently, Mr. Al-Saad has been appointed to be the CEO of Qatari Diar Real-Estate Investment Company the wholly owned real estate investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority and the Government of Qatar capitalized at US$1 billion.


The world’s 100 most influential Arabs

65# Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad

Country of Residence / Nationality: Qatar

Industry: Real Estate

Companies: Barwa Real Estate Company

A star of Qatar's real estate market, Al Saad's reputation and profile grew alongside his home state's property boom.

A star of Qatar's real estate market, Al Saad's reputation and profile grew alongside his home state's property boom.

As head of one of the Gulf nation's biggest developers, Barwa Real Estate, he has overseen high-profile property developments in his domestic market, while steering the firm into foreign markets including Libya, Switzerland and Belgium.

The property sector's slump, triggered by the global economic downturn, means Al Saad will need all his business acumen to guide Barwa through this challenging year.

Earlier this month the firm reported a 41.5 percent drop in 2008 net profit to $85.14m, caused by a decline in property prices. In January, Qatar's government ordered Barwa, an affiliate of state-owned Qatari Diar, to merge with Qatar Real Estate Investment Company.

Barwa is publicly listed and trades on the Doha Securities Market. The company was formed in 2005 and a stake of 55 percent, worth more than $300m, was offered shortly afterwards in an initial public offering that attracted more than 200,000 shareholders.

It is expected to be turned into a hotel.



In October 2009, the building was Grade 2 listed and that means its facade cannot be touched and parts of its interior without special planning permission. The building's Eagle with its 35-foot wingspan, will stay.

Obama's Great Canadian health care system

'My heart, my choice,' Williams says, defending decision for U.S. heart surgery

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams

By Tara Brautigam

An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors.

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

The 60-year-old Williams said doctors detected a heart murmur last spring and told him that one of his heart valves wasn't closing properly, creating a leakage.

He said he was told at the time that the problem was "moderate" and that he should come back for a checkup in six months.

Eight months later, in December, his doctors told him the problem had become severe and urged him to get his valve repaired immediately or risk heart failure, he said.

His doctors in Canada presented him with two options - a full or partial sternotomy, both of which would've required breaking bones, he said.

He said he spoke with and provided his medical information to a leading cardiac surgeon in New Jersey who is also from Newfoundland and Labrador. He advised him to seek treatment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.

That's where he was treated by Dr. Joseph Lamelas, a cardiac surgeon who has performed more than 8,000 open-heart surgeries.

Williams said Lamelas made an incision under his arm that didn't require any bone breakage.

"I wanted to get in, get out fast, get back to work in a short period of time," the premier said.

Williams said he didn't announce his departure south of the border because he didn't want to create "a media gong show," but added that criticism would've followed him had he chose to have surgery in Canada.

"I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. ... I accept that. That's public life," he said.

"(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that."

Williams said his decision to go to the U.S. did not reflect any lack of faith in his own province's health care system.

"I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but we are just over half a million people," he said.

"We do whatever we can to provide the best possible health care that we can in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian health care system has a great reputation, but this is a very specialized piece of surgery that had to be done and I went to somebody who's doing this three or four times a day, five, six days a week."

He quipped that he had "a heart of a 40-year-old, so that gives me 20 years new life," and said he intends to run in the next provincial election in 2011.

"I'm probably going to be around for a long time, hopefully, if God willing," he said.

"God forbid for the Canadian public I won't be around longer than ever."

Williams also said he paid for the treatment, but added he would seek any refunds he would be eligible for in Canada.

"If I'm entitled to any reimbursement from any Canadian health care system or any provincial health care system, then obviously I will apply for that as anybody else would," he said.

"But I wrote out the cheque myself and paid for it myself and to this point, I haven't even looked into the possibility of any reimbursement. I don't know what I'm entitled to, if anything, and if it's nothing, then so be it."

He is expected back at work in early March.

C

anadian health care survives Danny Williams’ surgery

by John Geddes on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 10:24am - 81 Comments

[UPDATED BELOW WITH SURGEONS' COMMENTS]

I haven’t heard anybody say that Danny Williams shouldn’t have been allowed to travel to the U.S. for heart surgery. As the Newfoundland premier has declared in interviews published yesterday and today, it’s his heart, his health.

But accepting the personal nature of the choice hardly ends the conversation. Williams’ decision to check into Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami to be operated on by a veteran surgeon has been seized upon by critics of public health insurance as proof of the Canadian system’s inherent weakness.

Since I support the single-payer model, I admit I was worried about how details of Williams’ condition and treatment, when he finally talked about them, might reflect on Canadian cardiac care. If it turned out he had needed some esoteric procedure not available in Canada, I figured the critics would have a field day.

But the reality appears to be the opposite of what I feared. Williams needed an operation on his mitral valve. His office admits the procedure was, in fact, available in Canada. It’s more than that, though: Canadian cardiac surgeons happen to be renowned for their expertise in valve repair.

It was two Canadian physicians who wrote the how-to paper on valve surgery published only late last year in the New England Journal of Medicine. There are famous surgeons like Toronto’s Dr. Tirone David, who’s been called a “virtuoso” valve man. Minimally invasive procedures, the style of surgery Williams chose, are offered in Canada in places like the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

None of this is to suggest that Williams might not have had good reason to go to Miami. He might have heard impressive things about the surgeon who worked on him there. He might have preferred to be close to his Florida condo for recuperation. He might have liked the sound of the amenities and privacy offered by a pricey U.S. hospital.

But those sorts of factors don’t tell us anything about the capacity of the Canadian health care system to provide high-quality care. I’ve heard no credible claim that Williams would have faced a long wait, if any wait at all, for surgery in Canada. And now we know that his category of heart problem, far from being one Canadian surgeons can’t handle, is one of their fortes.

I’m reminded of another politician’s medical history and how it briefly made news decades ago.

When Paul Tsongas, the former Massachusetts senator, was running for president in 1992, he lashed out at the Canadian health model. Tsongas had suffered from lymphoma, and he said, rather dramatically, that the bone marrow transplant that saved his life was an example of how the American system spurred innovation that would never happen under creativity-stifling Canadian-style health care.

It was a gripping personalized take on the issue. The only problem was that the key research breakthroughs that led to bone marrow transplants were made in Toronto, and Canadians, at the time Tsongas was speaking, were receiving the procedure more often than Americans.

Case studies that initially cloud the broader issues can ultimately be quite illuminating.

UPDATES:

Getting into the details of why Danny Williams made the choice to go to Miami is delicate. Health is a personal matter, and anyway, the real issues here are about policy, not the particulars.

Still, Williams told Canadian Press that doctors in Canada suggested conventional surgery, while his U.S. surgeon did the operation through a incision under his arm that didn’t require opening up the bones in his chest.

This might create the impression that minimally invasive surgery wasn’t offered in Canada because of some limitation in the techniques available here. I put the question to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Quite properly, the institute stresses that its doctors can’t comment on Williams’ case.

But Dr. Thierry Mesana, chief of the institute’s cardiac surgery division, and a leading international authority on mitral valves, responded by email on the general question of how minimally invasive surgery is viewed by the experts.

“Minimally invasive mitral valve repair consists of doing an MV repair surgically through a 5 cm small side chest incision instead of a 10 cm incision in the middle of the chest. A recent survey published at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons meeting (Jan 2010) expressed some word of caution and showed it is not recommended for complex mitral valve repair and also that the rate of complication (strokes in particular) is higher.

“There are a few advantages in terms of length of hospital stay or transfusion or post-operative arrythmias. The only real benefit is cosmetic. Many world renowned experts do not advocate it, in fact. It is done in Canada, but again, with caution. I propose it only for cosmetic reasons in a young woman who dislikes the idea of having a scar visible in summer. This procedure is well publicized in the U.S. in some centres.”

ANOTHER UPATE:

I mention above the well-known Toronto heart surgeon Dr. Tirone David. From India, where David is teaching just now, he responded by email to questions I asked through his office. Here’s what he said:

“I don’t know the reasons Mr. Williams opted to have his operation in Florida. It is certainly not because minimally invasive mitral valve repair is not available in Canada. Canadian heart surgeons routinely do minimally invasive mitral valve repair including techniques involvng endoscopic and robotic approaches.

“There is absolutely no evidence that robotic mitral valve repair is superior to other minimally invasive approaches, such as a limited sternotomy or lateral thoracomy, with or without the aid of endoscopes. Moreover, when it comes to heart valve surgery, there are very few places in the world that can match the outomes we have provided at Toronto General Hospital.

“Having said all that, Mr. Williams certainly had the right to go anywhere he wanted for surgery.”

Obama's Governmental Flow Chart

This is a perfect illustration of forcing through the health care program that most people don’t want.

Governmental Flow Chart

This should put things in a better prospective !

Obama's frightening situations will amazing precautions be nessacery

The Family Fallout Shelter

When people are faced with frightening situations, they will take amazing precautions — even if the perceived threat never happens. People in coastal cities facing a possible hurricane will stock up on food, store water in their bathtubs and board up their windows. Just before the century changed to the year 2000, people were worried that computers around the world would shut down, bringing down power grids, ATM machines, gasoline stations, health care, transportation systems, financial and governmental services. Many took precautions.

Artist's rendition of temporary basement fallout shelter, 1957. Source - NARA, NWDNS-311-D-14(1). Hear what CD officials were recommending in 1962. You'll need the QuickTime Player.

In the 50s and 60s, fears of nuclear war spurred a boom in building fallout shelters — right in your own basement or under the back yard.

A fallout shelter built in the corner of a basement was the least expensive type, and it supposedly offered "substantial protection." In many plans, concrete blocks provided the walls. An open doorway and vents near the floor provided ventilation. The shelter's entrance was constructed with a sharp turn to reduce radiation intensity. Several Nebraska publications recommended stocking foods that would last for several months without refrigeration and that required little or no cooking. There were devices to help people know when radioativity had reached safe levels. The pocket dosimeter was a radiation detection device that included a pen-like tube that could be worn on clothing. The tube captured radioactivity in the air, and could then be read by a separate base unit to determine the level of exposure of radioactive fallout. There were even radiation detectors, known as Geiger counters available for sale.

Other plans called for construction of a separate fallout shelter several feet underground. Even four feet of earth or a couple of feet of concrete would reduce the level of gamma ray radiation that would reach the family in an underground shelter. One plan suggested the "The roof of the shelter can be used as an attractive patio." Ventilation in the shelter was provided by a hand-cranked blower attached through a pipe to a filter mechanism on the surface. By turning the crank, the shelter would be ventilated with fresh air filtered to keep out radioactive particles. National Manufacturing Company of Lincoln manufactured one popular ventilating device. Some more elaborate plans suggested installing an electrical generator to provide all the comforts of home.

Mrs. Raymond Baker and her daughters Susan (left) and Shara Lynn in the family's basement fallout shelter, 1960. Source — NSHS, RG PC1668.

Civil Defense agencies often provided red and yellow candies in their shelters that were called "carbohydrate supplements." Also, crackers known as "Nebraskits" were available. Otoe Food Products of Nebraska City canned drinking water for civil defense under its Morton House brand. Roberts Dairy from Elkhorn packaged water in the familiar milk cartons.

Sometimes, cots, sanitation kits, and tins of candy were provided by the Nebraska Civil Defense Agency for family shelters. More often, families had to buy similar products commercially.

It was recommended that people stay in the shelter full time for at least 14 days after a nuclear blast. Families with children were advised to stock their shelter with recreational materials to break the monotony. Monopoly games were popular. Other suggested items included playing cards and diaries to keep a record of one's stay.

According to civil defense authorities, a concrete block basement shelter could be built as a do-it-yourself project for $150 to $200. Exactly how much protection they actually afforded was an open question — one that, thankfully, no one has had to test, yet.

Are you still happy about Obama and Hillary Clinton

Now that North Korea has tested a second nuclear bomb?

Are you still happy about Obama and Hillary Clinton being in charge of our foreign policy?


Not at all.

0bama will talk.. . just like Neville Chamberlain.

SEOUL — President Obama wrapped up his eight-day Asian visit Thursday with tough talk for Iran and North Korea over nuclear weapons, but he gained no major policy breakthroughs after meeting with leaders of four nations in the region.

Speaking at a news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, Obama warned that the U.S. and its allies are discussing possible new penalties against Iran for rejecting a United Nations-backed plan that would halt its nuclear program.

Since Iran has been foot-dragging in accepting the U.N. proposal, "we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences," he said.

"Over the next several weeks, we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take that will indicate our seriousness to Iran," Obama added.

THREATS: N. Korea says Obama trying to pick a fight

The U.S. is meeting Friday in Brussels with five other nations — Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany — to discuss what measures could be used against Iran, European Union foreign affairs spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.

On North Korea, Obama and Lee agreed on a common strategy to reward the reclusive nation with a package of economic assistance only after the North takes a concrete step to eliminate its nuclear weapons program.

Obama also announced that special envoy Stephen Bosworth will make his first trip to North Korea on Dec. 8 to see whether the country is willing to resume nuclear disarmament talks.

PROGRESS: No breakthroughs made, but China keeps Obama busy

AT ISSUE: Obama's censorship talk unheard by many in China

INTERACTIVE MAP: Track Obama's Asia trip

Obama warned North Korea against repeating its typical pattern of provocation, followed by on-again, off-again negotiations.

The Bosworth visit, which marks the first direct talks with the communist country of Obama's administration, is "a very symbolic gesture, and the moment the North has been waiting for," said Paik Hak-soon, a North Korea expert at Sejong Institute near Seoul.

Even if North Korean leader Kim Jong Il does resume negotiations, "the sticks are not sharp enough and the carrots are not sweet enough" to persuade the North to drop its nuclear weapons program, said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea watcher at Seoul's Kookmin University.

"The North Korean government is not terribly interested in economic growth. They feel they need nuclear weapons more than money," he said.

The White House played down any expectations of clear-cut breakthroughs during Obama's trip, which also included Japan, Singapore and China. Instead, Obama's visit was meant to mark the U.S. re-engagement with the growing economic region. "We didn't come halfway across the world for ticker-tape parades," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said Thursday. "We came here to lay a foundation for progress. We've done that."

A presidential trip "is not an immediate gratification business," Axelrod said. "We didn't have expectations that Barack Obama arrives in China or anywhere else and things change overnight. But all this is about moving in the right direction."

Before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington, Obama spoke to U.S. troops at Osan Air Base near Seoul. About 28,500 U.S. servicemembers are in South Korea.

South Korea gave Obama one of the warmest welcomes of the trip. Thousands of people waved flags and cheered the president's motorcade.

His meeting in South Korea also proved to be a relative breeze compared with his stop in China, where Communist Party leaders gave little ground on key issues of economic recovery and climate change. China's government also restricted coverage of Obama's town-hall-style meeting with students, which was designed to win over the Chinese public.

And there is less tension in South Korea over the U.S. military presence than in Japan, where a new administration seeks to renegotiate U.S. arrangements there. Obama's stop at the Osan base was his third visit with U.S. troops during the Asia trip, as he continues to weigh sending more troops to Afghanistan.

US and South Korean envoys were set Tuesday to begin a new diplomatic initiative to bring North Korea back to the nuclear disarmament talks it quit 10 months ago.

The US's special envoy Stephen Bosworth and its chief nuclear negotiator Sung Kim were to leave Tuesday US time for China, South Korea and Japan, the State Department said.

South Korea's chief negotiator Wi Sung-Lac departed for Beijing Tuesday afternoon on a similar mission.

The State Department said the Americans have no plans to meet North Korean officials, and there is no sign Pyongyang is ready to return to the six-nation disarmament forum.

"We are looking for a signal from North Korea, and we?re still waiting for that signal," spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday.

It was unclear when Bosworth and Sung Kim would be in each country.

China, the communist North's sole major diplomatic and economic ally, is trying to bring it back to the talks hosted by Beijing since 2003.

Senior Chinese party official Wang Jiarui visited Pyongyang this month for talks with leader Kim Jong-Il and China's nuclear negotiators met their North Korean counterparts in Beijing.

But media reports said the North is sticking to its preconditions for returning to dialogue: the lifting of United Nations sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a formal peace treaty on the Korean peninsula.

The United States, South Korea and Japan -- the other members of the talks which also include Russia -- say the North must first return to dialogue and show it is serious about denuclearisation before other issues are dealt with.

"The (Seoul) government maintains that discussions on a peace treaty will be possible only after we make progress in denuclearisation," Wi told reporters.

Yun Duk-Min, professor at Seoul's Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, said China was trying to narrow the gap between North Korea and the other countries, notably the United States.

"It remains to be seen how things will end up, as North Korea wants to extort as many gains as possible from others before returning to six-party talks while China plays good cop and the United States bad cop," he told AFP.

But Yun said he believes it would come back to the talks eventually.

Under deals in 2005 and 2007 the North agreed to scrap its nuclear weapons in return for aid and major diplomatic and security benefits, including a formal peace pact.

But the talks became bogged down by disputes over ways to verify disarmament and in April last year the North quit them altogether.

Pyongyang, which tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009, says it developed nuclear weaponry because of a US threat of aggression, and it must have a peace pact before it considers giving them up.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended only in an armistice. Seoul officials suspect talk of a peace treaty is an excuse to delay action on the nuclear programme.

During his two-day stay in Beijing, Wi said he would meet chief nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei, who held the talks with the North Koreans this month.

Either Bosworth or Sung Kim will return to Washington in time for a meeting Friday between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said a senior official of North Korea's ruling party arrived in China Tuesday and may deliver a letter from Kim Jong-Il to President Hu Jintao.

The visit by Kim Yong-Il, director of the party's international department, follows Wang's visit to Pyongyang.